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Motorists have faced more than three years of misery as work to improve Tollbar End has caused delays, chaos and even evacuations from houses .

But, as light appears at the end of the tunnel, we take a look at what work has been done - and also the slight mishaps that have occurred during the mammoth project.

Believe it or not, the project near Coventry Airport first came to light before the turn of the millennium.

It was first proposed in the Government published ‘A New Deal For Trunk Roads in England’, and then five years later in 2003 after a public consultation and approval by a Warwick local regional planning body, it was entered into the Targeted Programme of Improvements.

Tollbar island roadworks

Between 2007 and 2010, there was a public exhibition held in Coventry, and a public enquiry, which was followed by the announcement of the scheme in then-Chancellor George Osborne’s budget announcements in 2011.

Between 60,000 and 90,000 vehicles a day use the Tollbar junction and it is considered an accident ‘cluster’ site.

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Work then initially started on the £106m scheme in August 2013 with underground cabling being installed along the north side of Stonebridge Highway, and fencing being erected around the roundabout to secure the area.

The scheme also stated an underpass would be created beneath the roundabout at Tollbar End from the A46 Coventry bypass to the A45 Stonebridge Highway in an effort to increase safety, reduce congestion and improve capacity.

The new Tollbar roundabout East Bridge is now open and now work to reconstruct the exit slip road off the A45 Stonebridge Highway eastbound finished as work continues to the underpass and the remaining areas around the Tollbar roundabout.

Other work which has been done included a road-widening extension into Middlemarch Business Park and a roundabout on Siskin Drive.

During the course of the project, speed cameras were installed on the A45 at Ryton-on-Dunsmore in March 2013, and in August signs warning of possible delays “until Autumn 2016” went up near Tollbar island, including on the A45 approach from Rugby, a notorious bottleneck.

However, six months after work started, workmen sliced through a water pipe, causing so much flooding that homes in nearby Sunbury Road were evacuated.

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Severn Trent Water said the damage to the pipe, which is six metres underground, was caused by a third party contractor during the ongoing improvements around Tollbar island.

The new Tollbar roundabout East Bridge is now open and now work to reconstruct the exit slip road off the A45 Stonebridge Highway eastbound finished as work continues to the underpass and the remaining areas around the Tollbar roundabout.

Overnight road closures started in May 2014 and has carried on throughout the work being done for resurfacing work.

And sadly, at the beginning of 2015, a cyclist was killed after being involved in a collision with a lorry.